Recent Articles Summary

Vote NO on the override. This website has several articles showing why Shrewsbury should vote NO. To read the article, click on the corresponding link at the top of the page.

Why Not an Override? Presents Major Arguments Against an Operating Budget Override.

A Warning on Overrides – A historical perspective on why Proposition 2 1/2 was and is necessary.

Tax Breaks for Seniors – Explains two types of property tax breaks available, one of which is available to all residential homeowners.

School Costs Woes – Read about the continuing unsustainable cost increases in school department salaries and special education, and about school officials’ failure to reduce these annual cost increases significantly.

School Reporting Errors – 1) School officials reported incorrect teacher data to the state Department of Education, resulting in a substantial overstatement of Shrewsbury’s student/teacher ratio, but failed to publicly issue a correction for several months. 2) More examples of inaccurate total school spending that results in under-reporting of per-pupil expenditures, but town officials refuse to perform a thorough review of how the numbers are generated.

Shrewsbury’s Per-Pupil Spending? shows that Shrewsbury’s per-pupil spending is not out of line with towns that school officials like to compare with, when adjusted for the economies of scale – the larger enrollment – of the Shrewsbury district.

Residential Zoning – why town officials bear primary responsibility for the failure to increase minimum residential lot sizes so as to limit population growth.